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Popping hard-to-swallow tablets or awful-tasting supplements are a thing of the past. Appealing flavours, colours and chewable ‘gummies’ are the perfect answer. Palatable multivitamins in the form of gummies have become a hit with young children and seniors, alike. Let’s dig deeper into the delectable gummy vitamin market.
In India, just like in the west, the gummy vitamin market has been witnessing exponential growth. Especially, in the last two years, many new players have ventured into this domain and with new and innovative concepts, they are driving this industry on a fruitful path.
According to Market Study Report, LLC, the nutraceuticals market in the US is likely to account for $138,047 million by the year 2027 from $73,986 million as of 2018. The nutraceuticals industry in India is also creating ripples and reflecting a tremendous year-on-year growth. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), reveals that this market is all set to touch a mammoth figure of $8.5 billion by 2022 from $2.8 billion in 2015.
The Global Gummy Vitamins Market is set to touch a lofty valuation of $9,395.1 million by 2028, as per the findings of Market Research Future (MRFR) in its latest report. “India can contribute massively to the market due to a rise in health consciousness levels among consumers and rising cases of vitamin deficiencies. The growth of the gummy vitamins market in the region is facilitated by consumption of vitamin supplements by the middle-income group combined with their increased purchasing power,” stated the report.
Elaborating further on the rise in demand of multivitamin gummies in India, Jagadish Jain, Founder, Nutrazee, Hyderabad said, “The gummy vitamin market has been growing exponentially in India over the last two years. In 2018, there were only a very few brands in the gummy vitamin segment with most of them not catering to what the consumer wanted in a gummy vitamin product and that’s when we decided to launch our first product ‘Nutrazee Multivitamin Gummies’. The success of our product has drawn the attention of many nutraceutical brands and today, we have almost every nutraceutical brand offering at least one product in gummy form.”
Moreover, the rise in health concerns due to a sedentary lifestyle is inclining people towards adopting health supplements; this is projected to result in an exponential growth in demand for vitamin-induced products in gummy formats. The growth of the gummy vitamin can be further attributed to the convenience provided by gummy products and the increasing number of consumers suffering from pill-swallowing issues. An average pack of gummies, which lasts a month, can cost anywhere between Rs 300 and Rs 500.
“I strongly believe India could be the fastest-growing gummy vitamin market in the Asia Pacific region in the next three years,” Jain added further.
Growth at snail’s pace
The United States and Canada are the biggest markets for gummy vitamins at present, the growth in these nations is also substantially higher than the market here in India. Although there is a strong increase in awareness about gummy vitamins in India, still the country has to cover a lot of distance to reach close to the market in the West. About 75 per cent of adults in the US consume dietary supplements, these figures are almost negligible in India, but with increasing awareness about health supplements among the Indian population and tremendous opportunities for the brands, it feels the Indian market can reach close to the West market in the next 5-10 years.
“The current market size of gummy vitamins is considerably small compared to the market in North America, Europe, and China but with increasing awareness among the population, we are very positive that it would be a broad market in the next few years,” Jain stated.
Echoing the similar voice, Divij Bajaj, Founder, Power Gummies, Delhi said, “Presently, the gummy vitamins market is growing in our country, and we are not even inch closer to the western market. If one looks at the market size and potential of the Indian market, he will be convinced that this sector is on the right track to achieve its set goals.”
Gaining popularity during COVID-19
Many companies witnessed a heavy surge in demand for their products especially in the online domain. However, during the first phase of the lockdown, the supply couldn’t match requirements owing to restrictions imposed by the government, since nutraceutical products don’t fall in the essential category. But as the restrictions were eased, companies started churning out their supply chain to fulfill the demands of their product.
“First phase of the lockdown was difficult for us but as things progressed, we started our deliveries and online aggregators such as Amazon, Nykaa started rolling out orders for us. Due to the lockdown, people switched their buying habits from offline to online and this switch actually struck a positive chord for us,” said Bajaj.
Further explaining consumer behaviour, Jain said, “There is a rise in health concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to rise in the awareness of immunity-boosting and other vitamin supplements among the population. As a result, there is an exponential growth in demand for health supplements especially gummy vitamin products, which are now the most preferred form of supplement for kids. This demand has surged our business and helped us grow exponentially.”
Promos for wide appeal
Vitamin gummy concept is relatively new in India and this is the reason that the demand of these chewable vitamins is mostly limited to metro cities. Elaborating further on the requirement for strong promotional activities to spread awareness among the people, Jain said that the strong promotions will definitely help in taking the gummy vitamin concepts to a wider audience. The advantage of taste and the convenience that gummy vitamins offer over pills and tablets can be spread to a wider audience through innovative promotional campaigns and with more brands participating, one can visualise a tremendous growth opportunity in the near future.
Many brands have stepped further and started running electronic and print campaigns in various media houses to expand their reach. Furthermore, various brands such as Power Gummies have roped in Bollywood celebrity Shraddha Kapoor in order to connect with the young generation of the country.
Similarly, many vitamin gummy producers have worked vigorously on their gummy packaging to allure more customers. In fact, the Indian market for gummy vitamins has been more innovative in packaging compared to the western market where the brands mostly use bottles and jars, also they still do not have pillow packs or similar packaging for wrapping individual gummies. In absence of a wrap around each gummy, the gummies tend to stick to each other in the bottle and sometimes even melt in harsh weather conditions. This is a common problem for consumers in the western market. Thankfully this is not the case here in India where almost all brands use pillow packaging for each individual gummy. Nutrazee was among the first brands in India that started using pillow packaging to wrap each gummy in a bottle to avoid the problems faced by consumers in the western market.
From the looks of it, the Indian gummy vitamins market is set to become a hotly contested space, with the potential to take on the established western market in the upcoming years.
Nitin Konde